American Consumers Combine Goals of Saving and SpendingKeywords: Retail Market

A new survey from American Express finds that Americans expect to save more of their money this year -- but not all of it. Their plans also call for increased spending on certain items.

According to the poll, 54% of consumers put saving money as their number one goal this year, compared to 33% who said the same last year.

But the survey also found that 48% of Americans are feeling confident about their finances.

(Source: Daily Finance, by Michele Lerner, 03/13/14)

The NAB Show: A Chance to Learn!

The Radio Advertising Bureau will present five revenue and growth oriented sales and marketing sessions at this year's NAB Show, to be held in Las Vegas April 5-10, 2014.

On Tuesday, April 8, from 10:30-11:45 AM, dozens of sales and promotion ideas will be delivered in 2 minutes of less during Rapid Fire Revenue Generators for Small/Medium Market Radio. Bring your own ideas and share them with fellow radio professionals as part of this lively session.

Among the many industries that can't wait for the long winter to end is golf. Americans spend an estimated $5 billion a year on equipment and apparel for the game, and retailers are eager to see players return to the courses.

One of the most important components of the sales call that will help you close more business is the pre-call strategy session.

The pre-call strategy session consists of the following four steps:

1. Know what questions you will ask and anticipate responses. Your questions must be designed to get the prospect to verbalize their compelling reasons for meeting with you relative to their problem or, as we call it, severe mental anguish (SMA). Additionally, you must ask all of the pertinent questions about their current provider (your competitor), the capacity for change in the organization (time, money and resources) and the decision-making process. Those questions and their related answers will enable you to disqualify the prospect early in the process and eliminate stalls and objections at the closing.

2. Anticipate what questions the prospect will ask and practice your responses. Your responses should often be clarifying questions that will help you understand completely what is underneath the prospect's question.

3. Anticipate "curve balls" that the prospect may throw you. For example, you may find out, at the final presentation that the decision-maker is not going to be present. What will you do? You must anticipate and prepare.

4. Role-play the call. Decide, as a general practice, that any sales opportunity exceeding a certain dollar amount will be subject to intense role play and strategy development prior to it. Role-play with a peer or your manager.

If you are a new salesperson, you may not have a problem with implementing this pre-call process. However, if you are an experienced salesperson, it is easy to feel like you are beyond this rehearsal process because you've been selling for so long that you "know what will happen." I challenge you to think about all professional athletes or musicians who practice for hours each day and rehearse for each and every competition or performance. I hope you will adopt the mantra "Perfect practice makes perfect performance" and become a true professional salesperson.